00:00:08,430	It’s 4:00 on Thursday, July 9th, 2026, and we are at the Tom Baker Meeting room for the July meeting at the Bismarck Renaissance Zone Authority. I’m your chair, Jim Christianson. It looks like we have a quorum present and or online. Um, do we do the we do that on this one.

00:00:28,400	The quorum call on this one. After I’ve called the meeting to order, which I just did. So let’s, uh, call the roll, please. Sandra, be. Uh, authority member Steve Bakken. Yes. Bernice Duletski here. Amelia Doll. here. Kirsten Dvorak here. Nancy Guy. Kate Herzog here. John Lee chair. Christianson here. So now I will declare a quorum.

00:00:53,930	Thank you for that. Um, is there anybody. Do we have to do that one where if anybody is wishing to appear, it’s not on. It’s not on the agenda this time. It’s usually on the agenda. Oh, it’s after the minutes. If I just read. Okay. All right.

00:01:09,470	Item two on the agenda would be the minutes from our last meeting, which would approve. Is there a second? Any further discussion? No changes. Corrections. If not everybody in favor of that, please say aye. Aye, aye. Opposed? Same sign that. Thank you. Amelia. That motion carries. Now we’re at item three on the agenda, which is public comment.

00:01:26,930	If there’s anyone wishing to comment on anything pertaining to the agenda, please step forward. Seeing no one, hearing no one, you don’t want to comment on that on the agenda. Uh, we’ll close the public comment period and move on to item four on the agenda, which is the title team parking lot rehabilitation at 324 North Third Street in downtown.

00:01:48,270	Design review item Isak, I’m not sure your screen just went dark over there. Oh, there it is. Okay, okay. So thank you, chair Christianson. Mr. Hacker just walked in.

00:02:10,730	And authority members, this one and only regular agenda item for us this afternoon comes to us from the title team who are requesting downtown design review, approval of a rehabilitation and expansion of a parking lot at their existing building on at 324 North third Street. You can hopefully see on the screens before you.

00:02:30,600	And this was of course included in your packet as well, that this is located in the downtown Fringe district, kind of on the northwest, north northwest side of downtown or so, surrounded by other buildings and uses such as the Federal Building to the north, a city owned parking lot to the east, as well as some other restaurants, offices, banks, uh, to the south.

00:02:46,970	The First Presbyterian Church and to the west some other offices and vacant land of the former Budget Inn. Just to give a little more background information so that we’re all on the same page with this particular property. So the site currently is one parcel.

00:03:05,930	It was previously two separate parcels, and the western half of the now one parcel was the former Kum & Go gas station. Uh also address at 207 East Rosser. So the building for the gas station received downtown design review approval for a demolition, uh, in March of 2025, when the title team being the then and still current owner of all of this, expressed a desire to construct a building on that

00:03:26,130	site, and had expressed some interest and inquired about using the Renaissance Zone program as part of a potential project there. The properties would have needed to be kept separate in order for that Western property to be eligible for the Renaissance Zone program. As a new construction project.

00:03:46,900	Uh, what would be eligible for the Renaissance Zone at that site? But the current title team building, the existing building at 324 North Third Street, had previously received downtown design. Renaissance Zone approval as a project for a rehabilitation project in 2005. That project was completed in 2006, and properties can only utilize the program once.

00:04:09,370	Therefore, that’s why the properties would have needed to be kept separate. However, after some further discussion with the property owners, it was discovered that actually that block, uh, was closed from the Renaissance stone program in 2022. Therefore, the property was indeed not eligible, and currently state law does not permit a closed block to be reopened and brought back into the program.

00:04:30,600	So while the title team was still kind of exploring options and all that, eventually they decided to combine the two properties since it would not have been eligible for Renaissance Zone. So they combined it into one property, which is what we have today.

00:04:49,230	So going into the design review component specifically now, this was included in your packet, but I’ve blown it up a little bit more on the screens here. This is just an overhead site plan exhibit. Right now we have the existing property. You can see kind of the where the gas station building was, as well as where the canopy for the gas station pumps were.

00:05:10,670	And then next we see the proposed site plan. Um, it reconfigures their existing parking lot a bit and shows an expansion kind of to the west of turning that former gas station site into a parking lot. And a few things to highlight in terms of changes here. Again, hopefully you can see this.

00:05:31,130	Well, uh, if not, I apologize, but there are two things that staff would like to highlight here. The first one would be access points on the north side and the west side of the former gas station property. There were two large access points capable for, you know, two lane traffic, essentially.

00:05:50,770	Um, the northern of the two, uh, the North property line access point is being proposed to be removed. And then that western access point is sort of being shifted south a little bit and broken from sort of a a two lane access to a separated exit and entrance access points, and then, uh, a note on those access points kind of related

00:06:09,900	to this would be on street parking, on impacts to on street parking, that western side, according to some city data. And of course, take this with a grain of salt because people can maybe squeeze more cars or fewer cars in there, depending on how comfortable they are getting close to other

00:06:23,770	cars. Our estimate would say that on that west side, this change of access points would maybe lose one, maybe two on street parking spaces. Hard to tell for sure. But then on the north side there would be a gain of two, possibly three on street parking spaces.

00:06:44,070	So anywhere from a net zero of on street parking spaces to possibly a gain of 1 or 2 parking spaces. So that is the first thing staff wanted to highlight. Second thing is the inclusion of more street trees and general increase in perimeter parking lot landscaping. You can hopefully see that on the top portion that existing portion.

00:07:04,970	There are two street trees there, as well as some grates or tree wells for some other street trees that currently do not have trees in them. And then they are proposing to fill in those open tree wells, as well as adding in some more trees on the western side.

00:07:20,970	So an increase of about six street trees that were not there in addition to the other parking lot landscaping shown there as well. So in general, uh, one other note, uh, this process, this site plan that you’re seeing here is in the process of being formally reviewed in the city’s site plan process, and no other city departments have made any particular, um,

00:07:41,700	concern or noted any particular concern from a safety standpoint, whether it be access or fire access. Um, so therefore, staff find that the proposed design would not adversely impact the public’s health, safety and general well-being, and that it is generally consistent with the Downtown Design Review guidelines, a comprehensive plan and Bismarck Code of Ordinances, and any other

00:08:04,200	relevant law. Therefore, staff do recommend approval of the proposed design at 324 North Third Street, with, of course, the standard condition that any significant revisions to the approved design be reconsidered by the Downtown Design Review Committee prior to implementation. Uh, does the authority have any questions? Thank you.

00:08:26,500	Any questions of Isak on the presentation, anybody? We’ll start with. Uh, so as far as the adjacent property to the west, um, will that reconfiguration of the access points coincide with the access point to the property across the street or not. Across the street? Which direction? To the west.

00:08:59,770	I am unaware of any direct impacts to the property to the west. Uh, authority member Bakken. Chair, Christianson and authority members. Um, as the utilization of this particular property, to the best of my knowledge, would be for, uh, title team, uh, employees or customers. But I’m not aware of any particular, uh, impacts or concerns from any of the properties to the West. Okay. Thank you. Nancy.

00:09:22,030	So I’m the new plan. I see a little bump out here at the very bottom. And honestly, this is impossible to read. Is that like a dumpster area? Uh, yes. Authority member. Uh Guy. Chair Christianson authority members. That is a what appears to be a dumpster enclosure.

00:09:46,100	Um, but that is still for this particular property. That would be all on the title team’s property. Okay. And then the the little island just right above that is what, is Concrete Island. Yes. A little concrete island with, I believe, lighting on it. Yes. That so there’s no there’s no, uh, East side access. It’s just that one in and out on the west. Correct.

00:10:11,330	You would be able to access from third Street and drive all the way through, just like you can now. It’s current. It’s already there. Okay. There is an arrow. It’s okay. And I do apologize again. Sorry. Remember, Guy, for not blowing that up? You need. More in the in the staff report.

00:10:29,830	There other other questions of Isak Amelia. No I don’t have any. No. Okay. Kate. Uh, thanks. Isak, I have a question for you. Just on, um, we’re in the transition period between the old and the new land development code.

00:10:52,470	Um, can you talk about where we’re at with this, how this jives with the old one and the new one? Because we’re kind of in a weird, weird spot right now. Certainly. Uh, so, authority member Herzog, chair, Christianson and authority members. Yes.

00:11:11,970	As authority member Herzog was alluding to the city recently adopted back in late May, a new land development code, sort of an update to our title 14 Zoning and subdivision ordinance. Um, there is a transitional period where it does not go into full effect until October 1st, 2026.

00:11:34,970	This year, in that transitional period, staff are still using the what we are referring to as current title 14 as the default, unless a applicant wants to opt into that new code. Uh staff did not review this particular request. According to the Land Development code, we reviewed it according to the current title 14 zoning ordinance. If I can continue.

00:11:52,030	Um, so it says here under the zoning code, it said a review of this project under the LCD version of title 14, which I assume is the new code because you’re referring to the other one is pre pre LDC may have yielded a different staff recommendation. Uh, yes. Authority member Herzog. Chair Christianson and authority members. That is not to imply that it would have changed the outcome of the staff recommendation.

00:12:09,930	That was just meant to say that we did not review it according to that. Fair enough. Yeah. David, do you have any questions? Uh, yeah. No major concerns. I just have a couple follow up questions on the design so that the location of the dumpster enclosure, I’m assuming that’s to allow sort of maximum maneuverability for the truck.

00:12:33,700	Um, the, the my initial thought was it might be nice to tuck it more behind the building, but then it occurred to me that the, um, manoeuvrability of the truck might be driving that location.

00:12:54,500	Um, I don’t think there’s anything in the design guidelines that speaks to that, but was, um, one just thought I had looking at it. The other thought was the it looks like there might be a tree being indicated sort of in the middle of the the parking area.

00:13:14,970	Uh, so just a kind of a follow up question about whether that tree might make sense being located in one of the islands instead of kind of in the middle of the row of cars, unless I’m misreading the drawing. Is that like hatched area? Kind of two thirds of the way to the left in the middle lane, there. , it’s a light bulb. That’s a light bulb. Okay. That’s that’s not a tree. Okay.

00:13:32,970	Got it. Um, and then the I on the tree thing again, the West, um, I guess it’s the second street adjacent edge. We’re not seeing any street trees there just because of the drive lanes. And there wasn’t a feasible place to locate one. Uh. Design advisor with a chair. Christianson and a third of members.

00:13:59,230	My understanding is that, yes, a tree on that western side would cause issues for the site triangles. Uh, both. The corner, the intersection of Rosser and Second Street, as well as those access points. All right.

00:14:18,900	And my final comment or question is related to these thick dashed lines that I think our irrigation lines, it looks like there’s a couple lines going to that island in the middle. And then the dumpster enclosure. But I don’t see any planting in those areas. So it was just curious. Um, about that. Uh, does not advisor with him. You are correct that those are, uh, irrigation or sort of stormwater management, channels.

00:14:41,370	Um, as for their their purpose and exact location, I would, uh, offer the applicant or the representative to speak more to that because I am not as well versed in those details. Got it sounds like it’s like a drainage culvert or something that. Okay. Okay, okay.

00:15:04,370	Other questions anyone? Um, if memory serves, which it doesn’t always when we were approached 3 or 4 years ago about removing demolishing the, uh, come and go building that was on that site, uh, it was proposed that the title team was going to add on to the existing building, and we had that discussion at that time.

00:15:22,470	And I see there’s a representative of the title team here, but I’d kind of like to know what happened to those plans. Um, because that was one of the I don’t know if it was a requirement when we granted the demolition right to, to create a parking lot there. But it was certainly discussed. So, Mr.

00:15:40,700	Hacker, do you want. To chair Christensen before we invite, uh, a representative of the title team forward? I would just note that in that staff report from, uh, May of March of 2025. Uh, no, that was not a specific requirement that a building be put there.

00:15:57,970	But of course, any building that would have been built or hypothetically would have been built would have come before design review, at the very least. Is that only a year ago. Uh. May or 20 year and change. Wow. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that update. I’m not saying. It was four years ago, but time flies. Chairman. Good afternoon. Nick. Unidentified. For the character, uh, with.

00:16:19,800	The title team, a couple of things. That, uh, dotted line is the irrigation lines. We plan to bring water to that island, but the code does not require us to put any sort of landscaping on that island. But we do intend to put landscaping on that island. So, um, there’s going to be water there.

00:16:38,770	And, uh, water is going to serve the entire, uh, site. It also helps as a directional for trap cars to go around it. Uh, yeah. So exactly.

00:16:55,570	So what we did is we put that island there, so like create, make cars go to the right and and so on and so forth. Uh, in the handicap, the, the, the cross line piece, that’s a light pole. We, we, we tried to figure out how to put an island there, but the challenge becomes is snow removal. So when you start to look at where the garbage containers are, that’s not just garbage.

00:17:17,170	There’s actually a generator that’s going to go in here. We’re we’re going to relocate our own internal data center, uh, from Minot, North Dakota, to Bismarck. And that’s going to be in the existing building.

00:17:34,330	But we have to put a backup generator, which is natural gas supported, uh, in that area. So it’s going to be a more than just a garbage, uh, receptacle. Um, and then that light pole, because we have to get more light in there. It’s kind of dangerous right now.

00:17:54,030	Our, uh, our gals walk out there, especially in the middle of the winter. It gets dark at like, four, four, 30, and our team’s walking out there right now, and and, uh, we would like to light that up. So.

00:18:11,230	And then the four spaces at the bottom left, we designed that so that when we move snow in the winter, we can push that snow into those four spaces before it gets hauled out. So everything we’re doing here is make sense kind of stuff. Right. Um, there’s been some questions about potentially building a structure here. We, uh, we have spent a lot of money with architects.

00:18:31,500	We have, uh, we have scoped a building to be here. Um, that was our goal when we acquired this property. Our understanding was that this property was in the Renaissance zone. Come to find out, the statutory change, fast forward. It used to be in the Renaissance zone. It’s no longer in the Renaissance zone.

00:18:53,230	It makes it uneconomical for us to build the building today. But the way that we’ve graded this site is to allow for a building on the north side of that property in the future. And so we’re planning I can’t I can’t give you what the future dates look like. West, West side. Nick. Yeah.

00:19:16,200	The north side of the west lot like. Yeah. Right along roster like we want to put it right there. Crossroads. Oh okay. Yeah. Similar to the existing. Similar to the existing. Be a little smaller. Probably a 3 or 4000 square foot footprint. 2 or 3 stories.

00:19:33,300	Could be could be 10 or 12,000ft. Um, we just cannot put the math together right now. And under today’s circumstances, to to make a building make sense. So I would like to do is make it look nice. It looks terrible. Guys, if you’re driven by. Sure. Yeah, yeah, it’s bad. It’s right across from federal courthouse. Looks terrible. The Nancy Guy building.

00:19:54,130	So we would like to get this improved. Uh, do the landscaping and nothing that we’re doing really takes away from our ability to build the building in the future. Especially if we can get this back into the Renaissance and so on. Hint, hint. Talk to the legislature about any questions of Mister Hacker while we have him. Kate.

00:20:11,730	Um, thanks. Chair. Christianson and Nick, thanks for coming. And I know we talked because I had the same questions. And my seat here is a is for the park board. And so just looking at what’s the taxable value, you know, that we obviously want to see the increase.

00:20:29,570	Um and so my concern was just that it would be a parking lot in perpetuity forever. But you know, after chatting with you, I really appreciate you telling me, you know, might not do what we were thinking about doing scale wise. And obviously construction prices are high right now.

00:20:48,170	But yeah, we’d love to see something there that, you know, generates activity and taxable value sometime in the future. So however, we can help, you know, get that going. We we’d like, like to I guess, um, so that you can do that in the future. Uh, Mister chair and, uh, member Herzog, we need to go to the legislature to get this block added back in the existing building.

00:21:07,770	Had a renaissance on it, right? This site never did. And when we bought this after a car ran into the front of the building and made it a, like safety risk, we had to get that building tore down quickly. And so we came for the demo permit.

00:21:26,130	We did that, but what we really needed to do was go back to the legislature and allow them, you know, get them to allow us to or you to expand your run zone back to even what was originally there. Um, so when we bought this, we thought this was in red zone. Sure. Understand. So okay, other questions of Mister Hacker. Anybody? Amelia, you’re out there.

00:21:45,730	Still anything? Yeah. I’m here. I think all of my questions have been answered. Okay. Very good. Anyone else? Any further questions before we ask for a motion? What are your wishes? Move to approve. Is there a second? Second? Seconded by Nancy. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Call the roll, please. Sandra. Authority member Duletski. Yes. Doll. Yes. Dvorak.

00:22:12,930	Yes. Guy. Yes. Herzog. Yes. Bakken. Yes. Chair. Christianson. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Other. Business item five on the agenda. Anything for the good of the order before people have to sneak out of here for 430 meetings or whatever. Bernice. Sure. Christianson.

00:22:32,200	Do we know when we’re getting our new people? Because there’s no John Lee anymore. And, Amelia, I don’t know what. Her Zenker. Or Zenker. What? Maybe Isak knows when we’ll get our new authority members. Or. Or Daniel. Isak or Daniel. Do you have an update on that at all? Yeah, I can give a quick update. So.

00:22:46,570	So the portfolio assignments have not been selected yet, but we’ll be very soon. Uh, and we will will most likely need to solicit for a new authority member, um, for, uh, Emily Doll seat, um, because she will be a city commissioner. So we will need to find another member. Very good. Anything else? For the good of the order.

00:23:09,070	Anybody? If there’s no further business and no objection, we will stand adjourned until August 13th. Thanks, everybody.